Regional support for Abadi
Both Saudi Arabia and Turkey, two predominately Sunni Muslim countries, have welcomed Abadi's selection as the new prime minister to replace Maliki.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a written statement:
"It is a positive and important development for the Iraqi President Fouad Masoum to mandate Haider al-Abadi as prime minister ... We wish him success in his post. We call on all Iraqi political leaders to act in consensus and support the formation of the new government."
Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal simply said: "This is the good news I heard lately."
IS by the numbers
The Huffington Post has some shocking numbers on IS:
13,000 -- The number of square miles thought to be under Islamic State control, a stretch between Syria and Iraq that is roughly the size of Belgium.
1,922 -- The number of people killed in Iraq in June, according to government figures, making it the deadliest month since May 2007. Official figures report 1,393 civilians, 380 soldiers and 149 policemen among the dead.
30,000 - 50,000 -- The number of militants now fighting with IS, according to a recent estimate by Dr. Hisham al-Hashimi, an expert on the group. Many former Iraqi soldiers have been forced to join and others have been recruited from around the region and beyond.
5 -- The number of nations with which IS has engaged in direct fighting. Insurgents have attacked soldiers from Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey.
$2,000,000,000 -- The approximate value of the IS's cash and assets, according to estimates from terrorism experts. In June, Islamic State fighters captured the city of Mosul, looting hundreds of million of dollars from banks and acquiring hundreds more in military assets from the Iraqi Army.
Read the full story here.
Video: The Spread of the Caliphate: The Islamic State (IS)
VICE News reporter Medyan Dairieh spent three weeks embedded with the IS, gaining unprecedented access to the group in Iraq and Syria as the first and only journalist to document its inner workings.
Below is part one. Dairieh heads to the frontline in Raqqa in northern Syria, where IS militants are laying siege to the Syrian Army’s division 17 base.
Displaced Iraqis
Maliki Orders Iraqi Forces To Stay Out Of Political Crisis
In a statement on his website, Maliki ordered Iraq's security forces to stay out of a "political crisis" over who will form the next government, amid fears they could intervene.
He urged security personnel "to stay away from the political crisis and continue in their security and military duties to defend the country."
EU Help
The European Union has said it is granting Iraq a further $6.7 million dollars in aid, bringing the total to 17 million euros this year.
EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva said, “The new funding is to help hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Iraqis, including minority groups, that have been besieged in the mountains of Sinjar."
In addition, she said the EU could help finance humanitarian aid deliveries, should Iraq or the United Nations ask the bloc to trigger its disaster-response system, the Civil Protection Mechanism.
Abadi offers olive branch to Maliki
Abadi said on his Facebook page today that al-Maliki "will remain a fundamental partner in the political process."
Abadi also paid tribute to Maliki's "role in confronting terrorism."
In another post, al-Abadi called for an "open-minded" approach to developing a "shared national vision to overcome the crisis," and praised the role played by the country's Shiite hierarchy.
Abadi called on security forces, volunteers and tribesmen to "continue the defense against the IS organization."
He also hinted that he might not be any more open than Maliki to the demands of the autonomous Kurdistan region. "Preserving Iraq's unity and security are the greatest challenges at the moment."